Avia dicit amicitiam bonam vitam laetiorem facere.

Grandmother says that good friendship makes life happier.

Breakdown of Avia dicit amicitiam bonam vitam laetiorem facere.

• bonus: good
• facere: to make
• dicere: to say
• amicitia: the friendship

Questions & Answers about Avia dicit amicitiam bonam vitam laetiorem facere.

Why is facere an infinitive instead of facit?

Because after dicit, Latin is using an indirect statement.

In this construction:

• the verb of the reported statement goes into the infinitive
• the subject of that infinitive goes into the accusative

So the direct statement would be:

• Amicitia bona vitam laetiorem facit

But after dicit, it becomes:

• amicitiam bonam vitam laetiorem facere

That is a very common Latin pattern after verbs like say, think, know, hear, and believe.

How many subjects are there in this sentence?

There are two different subjects, one for each verbal idea:

• Avia is the subject of dicit
• amicitiam bonam is the subject of facere

So avia is the one doing the saying, but amicitiam bonam is the thing that is said to make life happier.

This is one of the big things to get used to in Latin indirect statement: the subject of the infinitive is often not nominative.

Why is amicitiam bonam accusative if it is doing the action of facere?

Because in an , the subject of the infinitive is put in the , not the nominative.